EDA/IP Weekly Roundup – Feb 8th

Element14, Verific, Coventor, Silicon Frontline, Cadence, Breker and Elliptic made the lineup today. See here for their news...

This is a roundup of news or activities in the past few days that may be of interest to people.

Premier Farnell a high-service distributor of technology products and solutions, has announced it has entered into an agreement to distribute ARM development tools, software, evaluation boards and debug hardware across the Americas through its Newark element14 brand. As a result of the deal, Premier Farnell will be adding ARM products to its portfolio of electronic design solutions available in the region. In addition, element14 has teamed up with Microchip and Matrix to introduce the new PIC18 Flowcode Developers Kit. This development and demonstration kit is designed to offer a hands-on, easy approach to electronics design using Flowcode, one of the world’s most advanced graphical programming languages for microcontrollers.

Verific Design Automation has announced immediate availability of a parser for the IEEE 1801-2009 Standard for Design and Verification of Low-Power Integrated Circuits. Also known as Unified Power Format 2.0 (UPF 2.0), it was developed by standards organization Accellera and carries the support of multiple electronic design automation (EDA) vendors.

At the IEEE MEMS 2012 Conference Coventor introduced its CoventorWare® solution for MEMS design verification and optimization. CoventorWare 2012 capitalizes on increased computing power and software algorithm advancements to enable more complete and accurate verification of state-of-the-art MEMS designs. CoventorWare 2012 has full 64-bit support and a new hex-dominant extrude meshing capability. In addition, CoventorWare 2012 includes a new Python scripting interface for its enhanced suite of MEMS field solvers and a new intuitive user interface, both aimed at automating the set-up, execution and post-processing of simulations.

Silicon Frontline Technology has announced that X-FAB Silicon Foundries has used SFT’s R3D (Resistive 3D) software for X-FAB’s 0.18 micrometer high-voltage process (XH018), providing improvements in reliability and efficiency. X-FAB is the world's leading foundry group for More-than-Moore semiconductor applications. X-FAB’s XH018 modular mixed-signal CMOS technology can be integrated with high-voltage (HV) and non-volatile memory (NVM) modules, making it ideal for SOC applications in the automotive market and embedded NVM applications in the communications, consumer and industrial markets. R3D is used for extraction and analysis of power devices. The combination of SFT’s R3D software and X-FAB’s 0.18 micrometer process supports advanced electronic designs targeting mixed-signal applications with HV and NVM modules.

Cadence has announced that Samsung Electronics' Foundry business, has collaborated with them to develop a design-for-manufacturing (DFM) infrastructure. Working closely together, Cadence and Samsung Foundry have developed "in-design" and signoff DFM flows to tackle physical signoff and electrical variability optimization for 32-, 28- and 20-nanometer SoC designs. The new flows address both random and systematic yield issues, providing customers with a proven foundry option for advanced-node designs built on the Cadence Encounter® digital and Cadence Virtuoso® custom/analog implementation solutions. The Cadence in-design approach to Silicon Realization moves traditional DFM steps into the implementation stage of digital and custom chip design.

Breker Verification Systems has announced that it closed calendar year 2011 with year-over-year growth of more than 150%, confirming its position as the first EDA company to solve the functional verification challenges of complex system-on-chip (SoC) designs containing embedded processors. Additionally, Breker recently relocated its corporate headquarters from Austin, Texas, to Fremont, Calif., and added noted EDA entrepreneur and verification expert Michel Courtoy to its board of directors. TrekSoC™, the first commercially available software that automates the generation of self-verifying test cases for multi-threaded SoC devices, is in production use at leading semiconductor companies in the U.S., Europe, and India. The latest version of TrekSoC will begin shipping in late February.

Elliptic Technologies has introduced the tVault™ Security Architecture - a technology that enables end-to-end security in connected devices. tVault provides security inside Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) and enforces the protection of sensitive information to ensure that it is stored, processed and accessed only by authorized applications. Individuals and enterprises are using a continually expanding array of intelligent connected devices. From smartphones and tablets, to smart HDTVs, home theatre components and in-car infotainment systems, these devices are rapidly evolving to become essential communication and computing platforms and “lifestyle” devices in the era of the connected consumer. This new ecosystem allows for numerous services and applications to run on these devices and offers users unparalleled opportunities to access content and to perform daily tasks. With the rise in the multitude of connected devices and the value of the data stored on them, security has become a very critical component requiring priority attention.

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